Our Christmas star this year comes from Italy and was observed by the TanDEM-X satellite mission. The municipality of Palmanova, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is located in the Veneto region. It was laid out at the end of the 16th century as a fortified city of the Republic of Venice, and its star-shaped layout followed the concept of Renaissance city planners for an ideal city. In this TanDEM-X image, the surface elevation is shown in colors (dark blue is 12 m and red is 38 m above mean sea level), while the brightness is proportional to the radar backscatter intensity. TanDEM-X was launched in 2010 and has been operating since then together with its twin TerraSAR-X as a bistatic SAR interferometer. This year we are commenmorating 10 years of TanDEM-X operations in close formation flight. The global digital elevation model (DEM) of TanDEM-X has been available since 2016 for commercial and scientific applications. A new edition of this global dataset, denoted as Change DEM, will be available soon.
The Microwaves and Radar Institute wishes you Merry Christmas 2020 and a Happy New Year 2021!
